Put foil in 9x13 pan, and spray with Pam. Put in a single layer of crackers, sides touching. Meanwhile, cook butter and brown sugar to boiling and then boil three minutes without stirring. Pour over crackers. Bake at 375 for 5 minutes. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the top and spread them around after they've melted. If desired, sprinkle nuts on top.

If you don't look at the bottom, you won't know there are crackers there. I think I'm going to try it with crumbled crackers in a thin layer, and then no one will ever know!

My family made these all the time growing up, but called them "Poor Man's Heath Bars." We also used white sugar instead of brown, and we are very much a no-nuts-in-desserts-EVER kind of family so I've never tried them that way. But, oh yeah, are they ever tasty!

If you smile at me I will understand, 'cause that is something everybody everywhere does in the same language.

I had forgotten about cracker toffee again. Now is a good time to remember, though.

Right now I'm bemused by the many different variations in fudge recipes, while all still using chocolate chips and marshmallow cream. The one I used tonight (one of the many "See's Fudge" recipes) uses 2 cubes of butter, for example, and one in the same ward cookbook only calls for one Tablespoon. And in the one I tried, you don't even cook the butter, you boil just the canned milk and sugar together for 10 minutes and then mix it with the butter and chocolate and marshmallow cream and vanilla. The funny thing is, I don't think there's much difference in the final result, but I guess we'll see!

You know, that looks a whole lot like the crust of this amazing pie in Alaska. It's called Double Musky Pie and has a very tasty crackery/nutty crust filled with a chocolate fudge-type filling. That stuff is amazing.

The recipe is here(the second one down) in case anyone is feeling brave.

If you call me cheap, I'll call you correct.
I'm now blogging, like a good little library worker

I have a variation of the "cracker toffee" recipe as it was made by a good friend of mine. She uses butter, instead of Pam, and Hershey Bars instead of chocolate chips. I think that would make a huge difference, for an even yummier result. (I looked the card over carefully, and none of those taboo words were used in her recipe.)

I made it a couple of weeks ago with crumbled crackers, and it worked well. It would be good with milk chocolate, I'm sure; the only problem for me would be remembering to buy the Hershey bars. I always have chocolate chips. That time I started melting the butter and forgot about it, so it was bubbling away before I added the brown sugar. I still cooked it for the three minutes, and it still worked, but was much thicker and more candy-like on its own than usual.

I made this for some neighbors and it was a complete FAIL! I used club crackers instead of saltine. And I maybe didn't let it boil long enough? And the oven hadn't completly heated by the time the caramel was ready but I stuck it in anyway.

End result: chewy, greasy toffee bits that were super hard to get out of the pan and the chocolate fell off!

Why are you the way that you are? Honestly, every time I try to do something fun or exciting, you make it not that way. I hate so much about the things that you choose to be. Michael Scott

OH NOES!! You must try this again, using saltines. ButCept somebody told me not to use Keebler Saltines, no matter what!!! I wrote down on my recipe card "I'm not sure why, unless it's against the Elf Code of Ethics or something."

But anyway. Yeah. Try it again with like Zesta or Premium Saltines, and report back to headquarters ASAP, please.

It very well could be, WiseMan. I'll go check my Zesta's box in a minute, but this is an Instructive Lesson for all of us: sometimes, on recipes passed along to others, ingredients are left off, nonsensical instructions are given, or personal brand preferences are cited without regard to anything like reason or logic. That doesn't mean the recipe isn't awesome, yo.

In other news, huge corporations seem to swallow each other up with alarming regularity in their quest for world dominance (or something), so it could be that Zesta is currently owned by Keebler right now, but when somebody pulls this thread up again in 2010, Keebler just might be part of the SONY family or something.

BRB.
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I have been to the kitchen, and this is my report:

The Zesta saltine box does indeed have the Keebler Elves logo up in the corner on the end, so I have concluded that when this person who wrote the recipe down for me said "don't use Keebler crackers," she meant the Town House or Club crackers... the kind lilcis used. Evidently, her family calls those sweeter, darker crackers "Keebler crackers" without regard to actual brand.

You are so right, KareNin! The quirks in particular recipes, and the followers who swear it must be done exactly that way, get pretty funny sometimes.

I could swear, for example, that the first time I saw the recipe for Cracker Toffee, it specified to use Ritz crackers, which are much the same as Town House crackers. It seems like that would work just fine, so maybe lilcis' problem was the cooking time.

I just thought of a funny example of how recipes get handed on and skewed in the process. One time my Aunt Virginia came to visit, and my mom was making lasagna, and Aunt Ginny told her to put hard-boiled eggs in with the ricotta. She hadn't ever made it, but was sure that's what the recipe said.

And, regarding the fudge recipes, I tweaked the one with a whole cup of butter in it, changed it to a half cup, and cooked the butter (margarine) with the milk and sugar, like most recipes, and it was the best fudge I've ever made. The texture was smooth and firm and dense and perfect. When I made it as the recipe directed, where you cooked just the milk and sugar and then poured it over the combined chocolate chips, marshmallow cream, and butter, it then had to be refrigerated for two days to let it solidify. I don't have time for that. This was perfect. It just goes to show.

Cracker Toffee variation! I found this recipe while looking through a cookbook at a school book fair.

It's the same ingredients, done the same way, except you also stir in a can of sweetened condensed milk after you cook the brown sugar and butter. I'd eat dirt if it had enough sweetened condensed milk in it, so this is bound to be good. I'm making it tomorrow night, so I'll report back.

Momma Snider wrote: I'd eat dirt if it had enough sweetened condensed milk in it, so this is bound to be good.

Oh man, me too!! I don't know what it is about that stuff, but I have actually cut myself a couple of times, trying to scrape out tiny little stubborn pools of it clinging to the sides of the can and the lid, so I could lick it off my fingers or the scraper. A shameful admission, but there you have it.